Golf Town

We often will refer to a city or town by whatever sport is most popular or most successful.  

For instance, Cleveland is often thought of as a "football town" because, no matter how bad the Browns are, they still draw well and dominate the sports headlines and local sports chatter. St. Louis is often referred to as a "baseball town" because the Cardinals are usually in contention and the team has always drawn well at home games. Schools like Duke and North Carolina are often called "basketball schools" because of the continued success of each school's basketball team and the mostly non-relevant aspect of the football teams.

But what about Kent? Based on attendance at sports events, Kent is clearly a football town (like much of Northeast Ohio) at least for high school sports. Roosevelt Stadium is always bustling on gameday. At the collegiate level, the continued dormancy of the football team has made Kent more of a college basketball town as the men's basketball team has now had 13 consecutive winning seasons, winning five MAC regular-season titles and five MAC Tournament championships in the process. While football may be making a comeback, it still has a ways to go before it really captures the attention of Kent and the region.

In terms of successful teams, though, I think I would have to say that Kent is a golf town. Yes, you heard me right, a golf town. While golf isn't exactly the most popular spectator sport, nor does it command the headlines that football or men's basketball typically do, Kent has quietly become home to not one but four very good golf teams. Most are at least somewhat aware of the success enjoyed by the golf teams at Kent State.

Under Herb Page, the men's golf team has amassed 19 MAC championships (the most in conference history) and placed as high as sixth at the NCAA tournament. The Kent State women's team, founded in 1999, has won every women's MAC tournament ever played and is now on 12 consecutive titles along with some impressive NCAA showings of their own.

Across town at Roosevelt, the boys golf team has more league titles than any team in school history. Coming into this school year, the team has 34 league titles (football and boys basketball are second with 21) in the various conferences Roosevelt has played in, and the team is already halfway to winning No. 35 having already clinched a share of their seventh-straight PTC Metro regular-season title. The team also won the first state championship for any Roosevelt team in school history, winning it all the way back in 1944.

This year, a new girls golf team was added at Roosevelt. Even though it's only had a boys team prior to this year, girls have been allowed to participate on the team as individuals, several of whom have performed well at the state level and even gone on to play at the college level. This year, there were finally enough interested girls to form a separate team and begin competition.

Typically with new teams, it's expected there will be rough spots the first few years as the team develops and wins are usually pretty rare. Not so with the new Roosevelt girls golf team, which is currently functioning as a club sport for its first two years. Just like Kent's other stellar golf teams, the Roosevelt girls team has shown it too is part of what makes Kent a "golf town." 

The girls team won their very first competition by 12 strokes (a 12-team invitiational) and so far has a dual-meet record of 5-1 after defeating Stow by 18 strokes this past week. Two of the team's best players are the twin freshmen daughters of Kent State athletic director Joel Nielsen, so the future is bright for the team with a solid core at Roosevelt and younger players ready to step in once they arrive at Roosevelt.  

Who knows, maybe this can be the team that wins Roosevelt's first team state championship since 1982, when the ice hockey team brought home the state championship trophy. While several teams have come close since then — boys lacrosse lost in the state title game in 2001 and 2005, girls cross country finished second at the state meet twice in 1997 and 1999, boys soccer and boys volleyball made the state final four in 1999, and the field hockey team lost in the state championship game in 1988 — it's been a long time coming for a Roosevelt team to be hailed as state champion. Though the school has had a number of individual state titles in the meantime!. Go Rough Riders and Flashes!